Carolina Reaper Peppers

[Z3Dreamer]

This is a rant, but if you have used Carolina Reapers, successfully, I am all ears.

Last fall, I acquired about 30 Carolina Reaper peppers. The big freeze was going to be that night and the gardener had no use for them.

The world's hottest peppers. I looked up a few Carolina Reaper recipes and DW canned 7 pints. Of course, I watered the recipes down even more than the author suggested.

This spring, I have attempted to use them, but they are just too hot. I put one tablespoon in a big vat of chili and it was passable. At 32 tablespoons per pint and maybe 7 pints and maybe one vat of chili per month (?), I have enough for 15 years. In dishes I make for myself, I can add maybe 1/4 of a teaspoon. At this rate, I will use up a teaspoon a week or 11 plus years.

I have successfully canned hot sauce using jalapeno and habanero and a few other types. The more you add other ingredients (water down) to your hot sauce, the less flavor you retain from the pepper. So, you want the right combination of heat and flavor.

DW is starting to spread the hot sauce around some plants to keep the deer away.

Has anyone successfully used Carolina Reapers?

 

[ivinsfan]

Maybe you need to work yourself up to the Reaper.



How liquid is your sauce? Maybe get a squeeze bottle and start adding by the drop?


We love Yellowbird hot sauces they are flowie like mustard. I buy a variety pack and work my way to the hottest which is ghost pepper. Good luck hot peppers are good for you!

 

[athena53]

Yeah, they're pretty powerful! I used a bunch in making vegetable broth- I store all the fibrous odds and end of vegetables in the freezer (minus ends that might have too much embedded dirt such as carrot tops) and threw in a couple of peppers. It gave it heat but straining out all the vegetables before I used it might have lessened the effect since a lot of the heat is in the seeds.

I've tried including them when I stir-fry vegetables but the vapors they give off make me choke, even with the exhaust fan on. I use maybe half a pepper in two large servings.

I've got more of them growing outside!

 

[euro]

The hottest sauce I use for my cooking is the Tobasco Skorpion Sauce. I use up to 2 tablespoons per dish. Any idea how it compares to the Carolina Reaper Sauce?

My cursory research suggests various skorpion peppers clocking in at 1.2 million to 2.0 million SHU units vs Carolina Reapers at 2.2 million. Not sure how that translates into anything.
I did use up a half gallon jug of the Scorpion sauce in about 2 years..... no refrigeration needed - nothing grows in those suckers

 

[ivinsfan]

The hottest sauce I use for my cooking is the Tobasco Skorpion Sauce. I use up to 2 tablespoons per dish. Any idea how it compares to the Carolina Reaper Sauce?

My cursory research suggests various skorpion peppers clocking in at 1.2 million to 2.0 million SHU units vs Carolina Reapers at 2.2 million. Not sure how that translates into anything.
I did use up a half gallon jug of the Scorpion sauce in about 2 years..... no refrigeration needed - nothing grows in those suckers

hotter then hot is what those numbers mean... following up on A53's comment which won't help the OP if you want less hot take the seeds out before making sauces...(use gloves)

 

[Z3Dreamer]

hotter then hot is what those numbers mean... following up on A53's comment which won't help the OP if you want less hot take the seeds out before making sauces...(use gloves)

Oh, yes. When working with them, I have gloves, masks and fans going. Clean all kitchen surfaces right after. Run a separate dishwasher load for the utensils used in prep. Multiple hand washing and shower before scratching eyelids or going to the bathroom.

I may try straining, if there is a next time.

Should I have the fire dept and hazmat team on standby?

 

[ivinsfan]

Oh, yes. When working with them, I have gloves, masks and fans going. Clean all kitchen surfaces right after. Run a separate dishwasher load for the utensils used in prep. Multiple hand washing and shower before scratching eyelids or going to the bathroom.

I may try straining, if there is a next time.

Should I have the fire dept and hazmat team on standby?

I was gifted a hot sauce by my well repair guy. He had it figured out. Gas grill with burner cook it outdoors...one neighbor had a window open, came outside , looked and told him oh, that's why my eyes are watering
As for straining I think the trick is not cooking the seeds at all...

 

[Sojourner]

Has anyone successfully used Carolina Reapers?

It depends on what exactly you mean by "used successfully". I grew some Reapers about 8 years ago, just to see if I could and to experiment with them in recipes, etc. My "successful" use was not in a recipe, but in a chili eating contest with some friends of mine. We took them to a local taqueria, ordered some queso, and then ate little slivers of them (raw) mixed in with the queso with tortilla chips. It was a lot of fun, but I decided on that day that I would never do it again. The effect of all that capsaicin on my system was just too intense. Unpleasantly and lingeringly intense.

In regards to recipes or other culinary uses, the answer is "No, I have not been successful with any super hot chili peppers." After many years of trying various kinds in various recipes (notably, vegetarian chili), I decided that the heat-flavor ratio was not something I enjoyed and could work with. I gave up eventually and just went back to jalepeños, serranos, and (occasionally) habaneros.

 

[Winemaker]

I had about 18 ripe "Reapers", 3 years ago, that i grew in garden. I took them, with some onions, poblanos, and roasted them on the grill. I skinned the poblanos, than ran them in a dedicated small food processor with salt pepper and homemade apple wine vinegar. Afterward, I put them in 4 oz. canning jars, gave some away and kept about 10 jars in the freezer.

I put a microscopic dab in a bowl of salsa one and a while, and maybe a toothpick dab in my scrambled eggs with salsa. This sauce will light you up! I have enough reaper sauce to last for the rest of my life, and maybe the next life. I only use hot sauce to increase flavor and not to outdo anybody's heat tolerance.

 

[Graybeard]

Carolina Reaper is an intensely hot pepper, unless you have built up your tolerance to capsicum I suggest not fooling with those.

In 2020 and 2021 I grew some peppers on the deck in small pots (2020) and then on the deck in small pots and the garden (2021). By far, the plants grew larger and produced tons more fruit than in small pots where they were stunted. The SHUs varied from 700k to 1.5M but I would not eat those raw or cooked into anything.

I make hot sauce from them. I froze them and use them as needed. In 2021 I harvested 565 fruits, many of them the 1.5M SHU variety, so I may never need to grow any of them again. I have lots of seeds of all different Super Hots but seeds are viable only so long and they are 4-5 years old now. Off the top of my head I can only recall a few varieties but if you want to know, I can check my garden documents for those 2 years.

 

[old medic]

We grow and use Habanero's every year, but the Reapers are just insane.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

Thanks for the replies. I will let you know if the carolina reaper keeps the deer away.

 

[Sunset]

Sounds like they would keep dogs from peeing on the grass !

I avoid those as I can barely tolerate Jalapeno peppers

 

[steiny]

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